FHS 3rd, 5th at true team sectional

May 8, 2013

MANKATO - The Fairmont girls track and field team scored 14 top-five finishes, while the boys grabbed 10 top-five finishes to earn third and fifth-place honors at the True Team Section 2AA Meet on Tuesday at Wolverton Stadium at Mankato East High School.

The Fairmont girls recorded a team-score of 455.5 for third behind Mankato East's championship total of 507, while the boys netted a 383.5 total behind Faribault's winning score of 497.

Sierra Schultz topped the girls performances with two individual first-place finishes and one second-place finish.

Article Photos

TRUE TEAM ACTION — Fairmont’s Brooklyn Leichtnam propels herself over the bar during the True Team Section 2AA Meet’s pole vault competition on Tuesday at Wolverton Field in Mankato. (Photo by Leanna Becker)

TRUE TEAM ACTION — Fairmont’s Brian Wilde motors around a corner during the 4x200-meter relay race in Tuesday’s True Team Section 2AA track and field meet in Mankato. (Photo by Leanna Becker

Schultz won the 100-meter hurdles with her run of 16.28 seconds and then jumped 34 feet, 3 inches for first in the triple jump.

Teammate Paige Bearson snagged second place in the triple jump with a 33-9 1/2 foot jump before the pair flip-flopped in the long jump finishes. Bearson claimed first in the long jump, going 16-10 1/2, while Schultz finished at 16-3 1/2.

Bearson also teamed up with Marina Rufli, Emily Wegener and Marissa Voss for a fourth-place time in the 4x100 relay.

Kayla Lardy and Wegener combined for a two-three finish in the shot put, with Lardy coming in second with a throw of 31-10, while Wegener threw for 31-9.

Wegener proved to have her best finish in the discus with a second-place throw of 105 feet.

Brooklyn Leichtnam finished third in the pole vault at 8 feet, just six inches away from first-place honors.

Sasha Riley finished fourth in the open 400 in 1:02.83, but came back in the 200 for a third-place time of 28.07.

Hannah Johnson raced in just under the 13-minute mark for the Cardinals in the two-mile, finishing fourth in 12:42.94.

Tracy Thiesse and MaKenzie Bleismer tied for second in the high jump, both reaching five feet to round out the Cardinals top finishers.

"I thought our girls scored as many points as we possibly could have today. We did everything we could, just couldn't stop the other teams from scoring," said Fairmont head coach Bob Bonk. "Once again the field events were huge for us, the jumps had a terrific day and the throwers did a great job to finish second and third."

Emma Wiederhoeft grabbed the lone individual top-five finish for the Madelia/Truman-Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Martin Luther girls team. The Jayhawks finished eighth in the team competition with 266 points.

Wiederhoeft finished fourth in the shot put with a throw of 30-11 1/2 feet.

Jordan Smith, Courtney Zaharia, Emily Zaharia and Rachel Shumski combined for a fifth-place time in the 4x800 for the Jayhawks with a time of 10:23.75.

Shumski, Smith, Emily Zaharia and Danielle Arndt then traded handoffs to bookend the meet for the Jayhawks with a fourth-place finish in the 4x400 relay with a time of 4:26.60.

On the boys side, Evan Ward earned a fourth-place finish in the 300 hurdles with a time of 43.92 after jumping his way to fifth place in the triple jump with a distance of 39-7 1/2 to pace the Cardinals' effort.

"I was really pleased to see the boys in the top half of teams today. When we look at where we were at the start of the season, we've come a long way," said Bonk. "I think this was our best distance day all year, Evan did an outstanding job in the triple jump and both our discus guys in the top ten is just great."

MTGHECML's Adam Cooling and Fairmont's Mark Fruechte battled for the first-place finish in the open 400, with Cooling crossing for first at 51.97, just ahead of Fruechte's 52.00.

Fruechte then raced his way to a third-place time of 23.77 in the 200 before anchoring the Cardinals' fourth-place 4x400 relay.

Fruechte, along with Payton Schlomann, Ward and Tim Tow raced to a time of 3:33.84 for fourth.

Cooling, meanwhile passed the baton with teammates DaMarko Thomas, Jon Whitney and Cade Ekstrom for a first-place time of 3:27.19 in the 4x400 to help back the Jayhawks a seventh-place team score of 316.

The Cardinals' Justin Barnes finished second in the high jump at six feet, with teammate Marcus Larson finishing fifth in the pole vault with a height of 11-6.

Brandon Martin also grabbed a fifth-place finish, in the discus, with a throw of 126-8 for Fairmont.

Derek Edman, Zach Brown, Brian Wilde and Schlomann traded handoffs for a fourth-place finish in the 4x100 with a time of 47.18 before Wilde teamed up with Schlomann, Barnes and Thomas Willett in the 4x200 for another fourth-place finish.

The Fairmont 4x200 raced to a time of 1:37.55.

The Jayhawks 4x200, with Thomas, Devin Ulmen, Cooling and Whitney raced to another first-place time of 1:34.17.

Thomas also secured a second-place finish in the long jump with a leap of 20-5 3/4 feet for the Jayhawks.

In addition to his relay efforts, Ekstrom also managed three individual top-five finishes. Ekstrom took home second in the 800 with a time of 2:03.06, along with a runner-up performance in the mile at 4:38.70.

Ekstrom then combined with teammate Josh Johanson for a three-four finish in the high jump, with Johanson jumping six feet for third, just ahead of Ekstrom's six feet fourth-place finish.

Fairmont will travel to St. James for the South Central Conference Meet at 3:15 p.m. on Tuesday, while MTGHECML travels to St. James for a 4:30 p.m. dual meet on Friday.